MIAMI — Former NFL running back Adrian Murrell knows the feeling.

He understands what the Dolphins are going through. He can empathize with the humiliation of their recent past, just as he can appreciate the excitement of their present.

"We were a young team, too, excited to see what the future held," Murrell said of his 1997 New York Jets team.

"We were excited about the opportunity we had, and we were excited about what we accomplished."

It was 11 seasons ago when Dolphins vice president of football operations Bill Parcells took over as coach of the 1-15 Jets, taking just one season to introduce his players, such as Murrell, to respectability with a 9-7 record.

Never since and never before has a 1-15 team experienced a turnaround better than that one. The 2008 Dolphins, though, could be on the brink of changing that.

If Miami (7-5) can win three of its final four games, it would mark the only time that a one-win team recorded a 10-win season the following year. The Jets of 1997 and the Colts of 1991 are the only teams to go 9-7 after a 1-15 season.

"It's still hard to even register it," said linebacker Matt Roth, one of 24 players who were part of the dreadful Dolphins of 2007. "It's hard to register what we've done in only a year. Last year was hard, man. It was just a downward spiral."

No doubt, this already has been a magical turnaround. But Sunday's game against the Bills will be the beginning of a crucial final stretch of games that will ultimately decide the legacy of the 2008 Miami Dolphins.

Because just as the Dolphins can solidify their place in NFL history by putting together the greatest turnaround of a 1-15 team, they also could simply fall into a pool of mediocrity.

NOT THERE YET

"We're not there yet," linebacker Akin Ayodele said. "But we're working on it."

That realization is immensely important. Murrell or Parcells could tell you why.

In 1997, despite that impressive turnaround from the year before, the Jets lost three of their last four games, coincidentally starting with a loss to the Bills on the road, and failed to make the playoffs.

"I think our biggest disappointment was missing the playoffs to see what else could have come," said Murrell, who rushed for 1,086 yards that year. "Coach Parcells always talked about getting into the tournament, because you never know what can happen then.

"We basically came up short."

If the Dolphins can win their final four games, they can avoid a similar fate.

In addition to the Bills (6-6), Miami still has to play San Francisco (4-8), at Kansas City (2-10) and at the New York Jets (8-4).

RARE ACCOMPLISHMENT

Running the board would guarantee Miami a trip to the postseason — an accomplishment that has never been achieved by any of the seven other teams in league history that finished 1-15 the year before.

As a result, wide receiver Brandon London said he senses a heightened level of enthusiasm from this year's squad, especially the 24 players who went through last season's disaster.

"Just talking to a lot of guys from last year, how enthusiastic they are, how good it feels to them, you can tell those guys are working a lot harder right now because of the opportunity we have," London said.

But that's not to say they are satisfied yet, either. Dolphins safety Renaldo Hill, another carryover from last season, said he doesn't even think about what this team has accomplished this season compared to last year.

Instead, he treats each season separately, mostly because so much has changed since the embarrassment of 2007.

"I just think of it as a new year with a new team and a new coaching staff," Hill said. "It's definitely a change, but I haven't had too much time to absorb it. We just want this team to find a way to win. I guess I never really thought about the other stuff."

But it wasn't easy for these players to put last season in the past. They needed to be reconditioned. They needed to be trained how to win again.

Coach Tony Sparano said he believes the breakthrough occurred in the third week of the season, when the Dolphins got their first win in an impressive stomping of the Patriots. It was then, Sparano said, that he started to feel something change.

"That's when I think we moved past it," Sparano said. "The depth that these guys have had to dive over the last several months has been tremendous. But until you win the first game, I don't think that you've came full circle.

"For us, we were fortunate to be able to win a game early enough where that happened. I think that was the defining moment for me."

STILL MORE TO PROVE

That might have been the defining moment of the turnaround — but the results of the next four weeks will help to truly define this season. Ultimately, it will dictate whether this Dolphins team will feel the same satisfaction that Murrell once felt in 1997.

Or maybe something even more.

"Maybe when we're done with the year, I'll reflect on it," Hill said. "But we still have a lot more to accomplish. We still have a lot more we want to prove."